Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday demanded that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman place documents before Parliament to prove her claim that the Modi government has given Rs 1 lakh crore worth of orders to defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), or resign.

Two days after Sitharaman made the claims in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Gandhi took to Twitter to question her claims, tagging a media report that said “no actual order has been placed”.

“When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM’s Rafale lie, the RM (Defence Minister) lied to the Parliament.

“Tomorrow (Monday), RM (Sitharaman) must place before Parliament documents showing Rs 1 lakh crore of government orders to HAL. Or resign,” said Gandhi.

When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one.

In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament.

Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL.

Or resign. pic.twitter.com/dYafyklH9o

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 6, 2019

Defence minister Sitharaman hit back at Gandhi for his remarks, saying read “the complete report” to “which you are referring”. “However, as the LS record shows, Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works.” Sitharaman tweeted, quoting from the media report to assert that she had not stated in Parliament that the orders to HAL had been signed.

Her remarks came in response to Gandhi’s scathing attack in which he said: “When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM’s Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament.” “Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign,” he tweeted.

Sitharaman’s office later also tweeted that: “Dear Shri @RahulGandhi , looks like you really need to start from ABCs. Someone like you who is hellbent on misleading the public will quote an article even before reading it.’ Her office also accused Gandhi of “lying” and said HAL has signed contracts worth Rs 26,570.8 crore between 2014 and 2018 and contracts worth Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline.

“Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the house nd resign?” her office tweeted.

Gandhi had earlier dismissed Sitharaman’s arguments defending the deal to procure 36 fighter jets from France and accused her of evading his questions on the controversial deal while debating the issue in Parliament.

Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also tweeted on Sunday: “The Lying Defence Minister’s Lies Get Exposed! Defence Minister claimed that procurement orders worth Rs 1 Lakh Crore provided to HAL! HAL says Not a SINGLE PAISA has come, as Not a SINGLE ORDER has been signed!” “For the first time, HAL forced to take a loan of ₹1000 Cr to pay salaries!,” he added.

Surjewala cited a media report which claimed that “not a single rupee of the said Rs 1 lakh crore has come to HAL, since not a single order, as claimed, has been signed till now”.

The Lying Defence Minister’s Lies Gets Exposed!

Def Min claimed that procurement orders worth ₹1 Lakh Cr provided to HAL!

HAL says Not a SINGLE PAISA has come, as Not a SINGLE ORDER has been signed!

For the first time,HAL forced to take a loan of ₹1000 Cr to pay salaries! pic.twitter.com/IzoRvHW1VM

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 6, 2019

The media report cited senior HAL management officials in order to back its claim.

First Published: Jan 06, 2019 15:15 IST